Purpose

The rapid progress of information and communication technologies enables business creators to access a wide variety of tools. These tools facilitate electronic exchanges and interactions with customers and companies. The purpose of this study is to test and compare the effectiveness of two virtual reality technologies, the avatar and anthropomorphic virtual agents, on consumers’ psychological states and perceived realism.

Design/methodology/approach

An experimental survey was conducted to measure the potential superiority of the anthropomorphic virtual agent over the avatar and to identify the determining characteristics of the anthropomorphic virtual agent’s effectiveness. An experimental website was designed for the purpose of the study. A total of 1,262 internet users participated in the experiment.

Findings

Results confirm the superiority of the anthropomorphic virtual agent over the avatar in affecting consumers’ flow state, telepresence experience and perceived realism. These findings can be explained by the humanized characteristics of this type of agent (i.e. verbal and nonverbal language).

Originality/value

The originality of this research lies in the study of different forms of social interactivity. This latter has been little studied and essentially treated with a dichotomous perspective (presence/absence of a virtual agent). New trends in digital marketing challenge entrepreneurs to be proactive and to anticipate customers’ behavior on their online stores. That is why, virtual reality technologies, namely, anthropomorphic agents, can be considered as a relevant tool to engage in efficient inbound marketing strategies. Today, the development of intelligent technologies encourages entrepreneurs operating online to design more interactive, realistic and humanized virtual merchant environments that are more adapted to the realities of the new consumption trends and environment.

中文翻译：

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虚拟现实技术在数字创业中的有效性：两种虚拟代理的比较研究

目的

信息和通信技术的快速发展使业务创建者能够访问各种工具。这些工具促进了与客户和公司的电子交流和互动。本研究的目的是测试和比较两种虚拟现实技术（化身和拟人化虚拟代理）对消费者心理状态和感知现实主义的有效性。

设计/方法/方法

进行了一项实验调查，以衡量拟人化虚拟代理相对于化身的潜在优势，并确定拟人化虚拟代理有效性的决定性特征。为研究目的设计了一个实验网站。共有 1,262 名互联网用户参与了该实验。

发现

结果证实了拟人化虚拟代理在影响消费者心流状态、临场感体验和感知现实感方面优于虚拟化身。这些发现可以用这种类型的代理（即语言和非语言）的人性化特征来解释。

原创性/价值

本研究的独创性在于对不同形式的社会互动的研究。后者很少被研究，并且基本上用二分法（虚拟代理的存在/不存在）来处理。数字营销的新趋势要求企业家积极主动并预测客户在其在线商店中的行为。这就是为什么虚拟现实技术，即拟人化代理，可以被视为参与有效入站营销策略的相关工具。在智能技术发展的今天，鼓励线上经营的创业者设计出更具交互性、真实性和人性化的虚拟商户环境，更加适应新的消费趋势和环境的现实。